Health Professionals' Challenges in Managing HIV/AIDS in South Africa

Abstract

The unprecedented human immune deficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) crisis worldwide, and specifically in Africa, requires new thinking, new practices, and new research into health management. Identifying the challenges in managing HIV/AIDS from a health professional's perspective would bring new opportunities and uncertainties to health management. Being able to use the opportunities and to better cope with the uncertainties would require a fundamental change and transformation in organizational health management, thinking, and practices. This case study presents selected research findings from a more comprehensive qualitative research study conducted in a selected health organization in South Africa. The aim is to assess managerial perspectives by (a) introducing the theoretical aspects on challenges in health management in South Africa and (b) presenting selected qualitative research findings from a selected health organization in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Research findings indicate that health management is strongly influenced by national and provincial health policies, donors, funders, communication processes, and culture-related stigmatization, all of which impact strongly on managing the disease.

Keywords:

• HIV/AIDS
• health concepts
• cultural perspective
• qualitative study
• health delivery